Stopping Stop Snitching

Matt notes that some enterprising politician might want to lock up his party's presidential nomination by taking issue with a rapper's sentiments, much as Bill Clinton did with Sister Souljah. Matt suggests, as a candidate, Project Pat's "Tell Tell Tell (Stop Snitching)." Seems like a good choice:

But there's a serious political point in there too. The "stop snitchin'" appeal -- at least in its honor-based, rather than consequences-based, form -- leverages group solidarity against outside actors (in this case, "black folks" versus cops). It's a rather neat trick, given the harm drug dealers and the like inflict on the community. But it works, in part, because political and policing establishments often do very little to integrate into the community, and occasionally delight in setting themselves up as "the other" to the inner city.

The obvious example here is Giuliani, whose "tough on crime" stance also included being really tough on black people, and really light on police brutality towards black people. Mike Bloomberg, by contrast, has continued pushing the crime rate down, but done so without setting himself up in opposition to the black community. Worryingly, he doesn't have a national reputation for being "tough on crime," possibly because rather than spending a lot of time being "tough" on it, he's just pursued good policies meant to reduce incidence. Worse for your reputation, maybe, but probably better if you want informants, and community cooperation, and all the rest.